


Come Back to Me, Always

by wrothmothking



Category: Cinderella Phenomenon (Visual Novel)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 03:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19286872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrothmothking/pseuds/wrothmothking
Summary: Parfait returns. This time.





	Come Back to Me, Always

Parfait is in their room when Delora retires, for the first time in nearly a week. She's awake, propped up by the headboard, paging through a flimsy novel. Delora wants to be relieved to see her, but the bags under her eyes and the tremble in her fingers breeds further concern.

"How was your trip?" she asks. The, 'Are you alright?' sits heavy on her tongue, yet she refrains. She's too tired to suffer a lie, too scared to chance a fight. Time is against them. The bloodshed's begun.

"Fine, if unproductive. It was nice seeing everyone again, but no one had any information we didn't already have." She closes the book, places it on the nightstand. "I missed you."

Delora smiles. "I missed you more," she says, stepping forward for a languid kiss, sighing at the familiar flavor of her strawberry chapstick.

"Impossible," Parfait whispers in her ear, sending shivers down Delora's spine.

Fond adoration swells in her breast. Delora climbs, carefully, over her and nestles in her side, head in Parfait's lap, arm wrapped around her thighs just above the knee. Parfait's hand settles on her shoulder, a fraction colder than Delora knows to be healthy--knowledge she wishes she'd never had to acquire.

"Did something happen while I was gone?"

"The princess is being a brat," Delora mutters. "She won't _stay_."

"Would you?" Parfait's spare hand grabs hers, interlocks their fingers. "You shouldn't be so harsh with her. She won't learn that way."

"What else will she respond to, if not tough love? Everything else she sees as a trap. Or, worse, a roundabout attack."

"Not so unlike you, once upon a time."

"I was never _cruel_."

Parfait's hand squeezes hers. "Doesn't she argue the same?"

Delora huffs. "You're both annoying."

"She'll be okay, Delora. We all will be."

Delora props herself up to look Parfait in the eye. "Even you?"

The fairy holds her gaze, but there's a solemnity there Delora doesn't trust. The hand on her shoulder shifts to cup her face. "I will always try my best to come home to you, Delora."

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die."

Delora shoves her. "Don't even joke about that!"

"I mean it, Delora," Parfait defends, tilting her head that adorable way of hers.

"I wish you didn't. The very thought of you dead...Too many people need you."

Parfait doesn't argue the point, but she does say: "They need you, too."

"Oh, you couldn't get me to leave if you tried."

"I'll hold you to that."

Fait's so beautiful when she smiles. Delora used to wonder if she'd ever get used to it, yet after all these years, this easy expression of hers still starts a pleasant hum under her skin.

Cuddling back into her, Delora asks, "Will you read to me?"

"You're still fully dressed, and not even under the covers."

"Hm. Comfy."

Parfait chuckles, more in lazy contentment than real humor, and slides down so she's comfortable enough to sleep. Better she rests sitting up, doctor's orders.

"I love you, Fait," Delora says, voice soft from an anxious heart.

"I love you, too, Delora. Sleep well."

"Yeah. Be safe in your dreams." There's little of that to be had in the waking world.

Fait laughs like she should, like it's a joke, and reads. 


End file.
